Going PLACES: 2022 PLACES Fellowship – In Retrospect

BY Katrina Julien, Senior Program Officer at the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, and 2022 PLACES Fellow   For The Funders Network, PLACES stands for Professionals Learning About Community, Equity and Sustainability. This is something that all alumni know by the end of the program, as we are encouraged to embody those ideals and be able to introduce them and our cohort at any…

Going PLACES: Reflecting on inclusive strategies to economic growth in Oklahoma City

BY Jessica L. González Martínez, New Growth Innovation Network and 2022 PLACES Fellow   I debated for a while about how I wanted to share the experience I had in Oklahoma City. So much rustled in my head regarding opportunities lost and opportunities forged. Like most communities, there appears to be a centuries-long project of weaving and mending, movements and actions of healing…

Going PLACES | Reflections from Vermont: What can philanthropy do better?

BY Jennifer Pereira, PLACES Fellow Arriving in Burlington, Vt., after a five-hour car ride from Rhode Island, I was struck by the beauty of the landscape: the sun shining on Lake Champlain, surrounded by mountains. I was in Vermont for the first of three site visits as one of sixteen PLACES Fellows. PLACES is designed for participants to use learning, coaching and reflections onsite to explore…

Going PLACES: What Are You Giving To Communities As A Healer?

By Gabrielle Sims, Project Associate, Shah Family Foundation   Going PLACES is an occasional blog series featuring the voices and experiences of TFN’s PLACES Fellows. For more information on the fellowship, and to read past blog posts from our fellows, visit here. El Paso was the city that I was most excited to visit over the course of my PLACES journey. Before the visit, I…

Going PLACES: Small Incremental Change is Systems Change

By Sara Levine, Quality Schools Program Officer, The Rogers Family Foundation Going PLACES is an occasional blog series featuring the voices and experiences of TFN’s PLACES Fellows. For more information on the fellowship, and to read past blog posts from our fellows, visit here. El Paso appears like a man-made island surrounded by the vast emptiness of the west Texas desert,…

Going PLACES: Pride, gratitude and Hope in El Paso

By Denise Herrera, PhD, Senior Capacity Building Officer, St. David’s Foundation and PLACES 2019 Fellow Going PLACES is an occasional blog series featuring the voices and experiences of TFN’s PLACES Fellows. For more information on the fellowship, and to read past blog posts from our fellows, visit here. I grew up three and a half hours north of El Paso, so I was excited to…

Going PLACES: Generational Trauma Across Indigenous Communities

By Jonathan Cunningham, Program Officer, Seattle Foundation Going PLACES is an occasional blog series featuring the voices and experiences of TFN’s PLACES Fellows. For more information on the fellowship, and to read past blog posts from our fellows, visit here. Growing up and reading about the atrocities the United States government committed against Native American tribes in the past,…

Going PLACES: Rise Above

By Steven Higashide, TransitCenter Going PLACES is an occasional blog series featuring the voices and experiences of TFN’s PLACES Fellows. For more information on the fellowship, and to read past blog posts from our fellows, visit here. Our first order of business when we arrive in North Dakota for our most recent site visit as PLACES fellows, a red state and the 50th most travelled to…

Going PLACES: A Moment In Your Day

By Michelle Morris, Director of Community Philanthropy, Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation Take a moment from the demands of your beckoning calendar to consider this with me: Visualize yourself with your family and friends enjoying the places you feel most connected with and doing the things that make you happy and fulfilled. Pause while the sights, sounds and smells bring you a…